Our text is going to be in Philippians
chapter 2, and we'll be looking at verses 14-30. has turned our eyes to Christ,
and having reminded us, He showed us that it's God that works in
us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And so now
what we see in this portion of the chapter is He's going to
give us a few more instructions on exercising the fruit and the
gifts which the Holy Spirit of God has worked in His people
And then he also provides us with some insight into the laborers,
the laborers in the garden of Christ's church, the Philippian
church, and even we see for us. And that is the laborers are
those that are ministering to the brethren, whether it's me,
the pastor, or you serving in any capacity in which you are
laboring together as fellow laborers with the Lord in this work that
he's doing in the midst of his church. It's for the church's
good and benefit. So, understand, brethren, that
the Spirit of Christ here is guiding Paul. The Spirit of Christ
is moving Paul to write these words. And these words at first
glance maybe don't seem like much, but there is good and there's
benefit for us here to read these words. In chapter 1 you recall
that we saw that there is nothing that prevents the kingdom of
God from advancing. His gospel goes forth and it
reaches the hearts of His sheep, of His lost sheep, His people,
And they shall hear and they shall believe because it's the
will of Christ. It's the will of God to save
his people. All those for whom Christ shed
his blood, they will hear and they will confess and believe
Christ. And Paul also began to show that
we are fellow laborers in this work. We see that we are fellow
laborers. In chapter 2, he then begins
to speak of how the Spirit makes us fellow laborers. He shows
us how we are made fellow laborers in this work. And then what we see here in
chapter 2 to show us how he shows us three things. He points out
three things. One we saw last week, which is
Christ. He pointed us to Christ showing
how Christ laid aside his glory and came in the flesh and work
perfect righteousness for His people, so that we are redeemed,
purchased with His blood, washing us of our sins. And then He sends
His Spirit. That's the second thing that
we see. He sends His Spirit. Now we know, first we understand
the Spirit is given to us to regenerate us, to reveal Christ
to us, to make known to us what Christ has done for His people.
But we see here now also as He's speaking to brethren, in the
church already who do believe, the Spirit also is given to us
to bring forth, to work those gifts, to work that fruit in
His people. And then what we'll see is that
Christ gives ministers. Christ gives ministers to encourage
the church, to encourage the brethren, to feed the flock of
God which Christ purchased with His own blood. Alright, so last
week we saw how Paul begins to instruct the brethren in unity
and peace. He instructs them in unity and
peace, and to bring that message home, he pointed them to Christ.
To bring that home to show us, I'm not asking you to do anything
that your Lord and Savior hasn't done for you, and laying aside
himself and humbling himself in yielding his own life for
your good and benefit. So as fellow laborers, we seek
unity and peace among our brethren, not to assert ourselves and to
have our own will done at the expense of our brethren. So now
this week, I want us to see the other two branches, that fruit
that the Spirit works in us, And then we'll look at the ministers
that Christ raises up in the church to minister to the brethren,
to help you, to be helpers of your joy. You, the church of
Christ. Our title is, Given for Thy Life. Given for Thy Life. And there's just two divisions.
We'll look at the fruits of unity and peace in the brethren, and
then these ministers of Christ. All right, so, again, last week
we saw how Christ accomplished for us, how he accomplished salvation
for us. And what we see in that is the
love of Christ, the love of Christ for his church. He loves the
church and he sacrificed much for them. He sacrifices much.
In 1 John 3.16, John writes this, he says, Hereby perceive we the
love of God, because He laid down His life for us, and we
ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. We see that, we
see Christ laying down His life, and so it's no wonder that the
Spirit works that same spirit and desire and willingness in
His people to lay down our lives for one another and to minister
to one another for the good of His people. So Christ accomplished
eternal redemption for us, and now He calls us, brethren, to
among ourselves to labor with one another in this work as his
gospel is going forth, being encouraged that nothing's going
to stop it. No opposition is going to prevent
Christ's gospel from going forth. And he says in verse 14 in our
text, Philippians 2.14, do all things without murmurings and
disputings. Now, why is that important? Why
does it matter if I murmur and complain and dispute and fight
with my brethren about things? Well, consider what Paul said
in the preceding verse. Look at verse 13. So we understand, because it's
God doing that which is of His will and good pleasure in us,
that any hardship, any work we're called to do, any struggle that
we go through, any opposition that we face, the hardships,
the trials, the sufferings, the shame, we know it's all of God
who is doing this. It's God who's called us to this
work. Go over to Romans 8. Romans 8. And I'm going to just
quote Romans 8 28 verse to you because we know that verse. We're
very familiar with it where Paul said, and we know. that all things
work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are
called according to his purpose." We are them who are called according
to his purpose because God does everything by purpose, on purpose. Now why did Paul say that? Why
are we always quoting that? Well, let's look in Romans 8
just to get the context of what was leading up to why Paul would
say, we know all things work together for good. Look at verse
9, at the end of verse 9. He says, now if any man have
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Look at verse
14, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the
sons of God. And then Paul goes on to speak
about the creature, about the creature, and what he's saying
there, he's speaking about the Gentile world, all those that
yet lay in darkness." All those that didn't have the oracles
of God, and didn't know God, didn't have the law, and didn't
have the sacrifices and the revelation of God as it was in Israel. He's
talking about all that, that land of the Gentiles who were
ignorant and in darkness and left to die until the light of
Christ came and the gospel went forth. and reached them when
Christ sent his spirit and the gospel and the ministers to preach
that gospel. Now in verse 23, Romans 8, 23,
And not only they, not only those Gentile creatures, yet in darkness
throughout the world, but ourselves also which have the firstfruits
of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting
for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. for we
are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not
hope, for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?" And what
he's saying there is what we know, that just shall live by
faith. We live by faith. Everything's not handed to us
all perfectly done, but the Lord calls us to faith. He gives us
that faith and he's gonna work that faith out in us so that
we are left to believe and hope in him and trust him who we don't
see. and know by his word and what
he said and what he's testified in his spirit that this is so,
that Christ is, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ sent of
God to put away the sin of his people. And so he's going to
bring forth fruits of hope and patience, waiting for the adoption
that he's promised us. Look at verse 25. But if we hope,
for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Because patience is another fruit
that the Spirit works in us. Likewise, verse 26, the Spirit
also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. So there we're beginning
to see the Lord works trials. He works these sufferings. He allows these things to touch
us, to come near to us and exposes us to those things so that it
bears and brings out those fruits that we might know what He's
doing in us and worked in us. That's salvation. These fruits
are shown that through faith and hope and patience and waiting
on Him that we are the Lord's and we trust Him through it.
Verse 27, and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the
mind of the spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints
according to the will of God. And the will of God is nothing
like the weak, fickle, darkened will of man. That's not the will
of God. The will of God is very different
from the will of man. And God doesn't rely on or look
to the will of man for anything in their salvation. but God's
Spirit working in us. He's going to bring us to want
the things that the Lord wants. He's going to bring us into alignment
with His will so that our will is in line with His will. Didn't
He say in Psalm 110.3, He said, Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. That's the work of the Spirit.
That ain't the flesh. This flesh is dead, and corrupt, and sinful,
and doesn't do anything good. So, it's the work of Christ in
us. That faith that we have isn't
even anything that we can boast in because it's not of our flesh.
If your faith is nothing more than that which comes of the
will of man, the free will of man, or this flesh, it's dead,
it's worthless, it doesn't do you any good. The faith we need
is the faith that Christ gives. to his sheep and brings forth
that faith, that true faith, that living faith that only he
works in the sinner. All right, now back in our text.
That's why Paul says in verse 13, for it is God which worketh
in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. And then
he says, do all things without murmurings and disputings, because
the reality is our complaining, our fighting, our disputing,
it doesn't do anybody any good. And in fact, you know, how many
times have you asked somebody to do something and they complain
so much that eventually you just stop asking? You don't even want
their help anymore because all they're going to do is complain
and whine about it. And it's really discouraging
to you. And so Paul's saying, don't don't
be like that, because we want we're fellow laborers in this. This is exciting. We're thankful
that the Lord is blessing us and bringing us in to this world. And then not only that, but what's
worse is that we're actually complaining against God, who
works all things together for our good. He's doing it for our
good. It's His will, so let's be patient in it. You may have
to pray and cry out and beg Him for mercy and forgiveness and
for strength, and that's what you should do. Because we don't
have any strength in ourselves, we are always being brought to
cry out to Him for our strength. And then Paul says, verse 15,
that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without
rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom
ye shine as lights in the world. Now notice he says they are blameless
and harmless, and what he means there is not before God. But
he's talking about us being blameless and harmless in the sight of
men. Because it's Christ and Christ alone that makes us blameless
and harmless before the throne of God. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our entrance into the
throne of God and to be with Him who is holy and perfect.
But neither our brethren nor those in the world should accuse
us of hypocrisy and insincerity. We're not trying to scuttle around
like cockroaches in darkness. It's Christ that makes us willing
and desirous so that we're not trying to be hypocrites and insincere
in this work. And there's a very important
reason for that. Look at the next verse, the opening phrase
there. He says, because we're holding
forth the word of life. We're holding forth the Word
of Life. We're preaching and declaring
and advancing. We want to see this Gospel go
out from this pulpit and reach Christ's sheep, His lost sheep
that need to hear what Christ has done for them. So we're holding
forth that Word of Life. Now turn over to 2 Corinthians
4. 2 Corinthians 4 verses 1 through 3. It's important for us to remember
that our purpose for being here is to live unto Christ, not unto
ourselves, but to live unto Christ. In 2 Corinthians 4, verses 1
through 3, Paul says, Therefore seeing we have this ministry, this ministry of holding forth
the Word of Life. That's the purpose why we're
here, to preach and to declare this Word of Life. As we have
received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced the hidden
things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the
Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. But, as we're declaring this, if our gospel's hid, it's
hid to them that are lost, Paul says. So we are to preach the
truth. We're not to change our message. We're not to make it
easier or more palatable to sinners. We're not to change the fact
that we are dead sinners. The scriptures declare that we
are dead. and trespasses and sins. And
it's not because this flesh is good that we're saved. We're
saved by Christ's blood alone, the work that He has done. We
can't boast of anything we've done. We're nothing compared
to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So we boast of Him. We declare Him, and so we're
not trying to be deceitful, we're not just trying to get a big
following, we're not trying to get people just to join in with
us just for the sake of joining in with us so that we have more
money or something like that. That's not our purpose. Our purpose
is to preach the gospel of Christ that He would draw all men and
women to Himself, that are His, whom He loves and calls to Himself. And so there's always going to
be those that are not satisfied. There's always going to be those
that are offended and don't want to hear the truth and are going
to fight and complain against it. But we are to live honestly
and to preach the gospel honestly, holding forth the truth and declare
what the truth is. So Paul says that ye may be blameless
and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of
a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights
in the world, holding forth the word of life. That holding forth
the word of life, it regards the ministry, as we saw, it's
the ministry of reconciliation. It's the ministry of reconciliation.
Now Christ himself used a term very similar. Paul says that
you may be the sons of God. And Christ said, blessed are
the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. of
God, the children of God. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be children of God. And that aligns, of course,
with what Paul is saying, that we should be blameless and harmless.
We're not trying to create disunity. We're not trying to create fights
or tear down others. But we're to be blameless and
without rebuke before others. But it also speaks of not just
the unity among us, but it speaks of the fact that we are called
to this ministry. We are peacemakers in the sense
that it's not what we're doing. It's the fact that God has called
us to hold forth this word of life that we are to preach and
to declare the Lord Jesus Christ because not that we make the
peace, but because Christ has made peace between God and men.
That's why we're called peacemakers, because we're proclaiming Him
who is our peace, Him who is our hope, Him who is the satisfaction
before the Father. We have nothing to boast in.
It's all of Christ. To wit, this is our peace. Christ
has made peace between us, God and men. To wit, as he said in
2 Corinthians 5, 19-21, to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself. not imputing their trespasses
unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you,
in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him,
Jesus Christ, to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we through
him might be made the righteousness of God. That's what we preach.
That's our ministry. That's the word of truth that
Christ shed his precious, holy, sinless blood to redeem a people
for himself. He saves many, many people, all
for whom he died are saved. Not one of his people go to hell. All that he shed his blood for,
they shall hear, they shall confess him, they shall believe on him,
because that's the work of the Spirit. That's why he sent the
Spirit, to ensure that we know what he did. And the Spirit regenerates
us, gives us life. That's the new birth. Some people
teach and believe that the new birth comes after we profess
Christ. But you're dead in sins. No one confesses Christ until
they are made alive and born again and given life by the Spirit.
Then they confess and believe Christ because they've been given
the new birth. That's why Christ said no one
can even see the Kingdom of God except they be born again. So
the new birth has to come first before we even confess and believe
Christ, because faith comes by the Spirit. hearing the Word
of God by the Spirit, not by this flesh. We don't give glory
to the flesh. Alright, so, Christ makes us
children of God and our salvation is in Him and the fact that we
confess Him before men and declare His Gospel shows that we are
the sons of God. We're declaring Him who is our
peace and we do so being unified in this work. We do so being
called to this work in Christ. Alright now, Let's go on to our
second point. Next, Paul gives us three examples
of ministers which Christ gave to his church. So, don't ever
doubt the love that Christ has for you, his church, because
he's giving ministers for your good, for your benefit. Turn
over to Isaiah 43. I want you to see this. Isaiah
43, and we'll look at verses 3 and 4. Isaiah 43, verses 3
and 4. Our Lord said to Israel, which
is a picture of the church, he says this to us even now, Isaiah
43, 3, for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel,
thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Saba for thee. Since thou was precious in my
sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore
will I give men for thee, and people for thy life." These words
of the prophet Isaiah, they're declaring to us the will of God,
they're showing us the care that God has for you brethren. He loves you, he set his heart
And upon you he shed his blood to put away your sins. In Jeremiah he says, For I know
the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts
of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. To know that Christ is returning
to raise you from the dead and bring you with a new body to
himself, to comfort you and to bless you. Turn over to Ephesians
4. Ephesians 4. And look at verses 7 and 8. We're talking about the ministers
that Christ raises up in the church. And he says, verses 7
and 8, But unto every one of us is given grace according to
the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended
up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto
men. Drop down to verse 11. Ephesians
4.11 And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ. So we're seeing here that Christ
We all receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We who are His.
If you don't have the Spirit of Christ, you're none of His.
So every one of us who are His receives the Holy Spirit. That's
where that faith and that hope in Christ comes from. He gives
that to each of His children. But to some, He raises them up
to be ministers, to do more. Like Paul said, he said, I think
we're the off-scouring of the earth. We're despised and rejected
of men. We're reputed as nothing and
thrown aside as though we're just dirt. And yet Christ has
called us to this for the ministry of his church. It's all for your
benefit, brethren. Look at verse 13, Ephesians 4,
13. "'Til we all come in the unity of the faith "'and of the
knowledge of the Son of God "'unto a perfect man, "'unto the measure
of the stature of the fullness of Christ, "'that we henceforth
be no more children, "'tossed to and fro and carried about
"'with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men "'and cunning
craftiness whereby they lie in wait to see.'" So what he's saying
there is Christ saved you. He shed his blood for his lost
sheep, and he's brought them into the fold, He's not just
leaving you now just to waft around and just follow every
wind of doctrine and anybody who has a Bible and claims to
know Jesus and is going to teach you and then they end up teaching
you some dead letter religion which does nothing. All they
do is appeal to your flesh and try to get your flesh to do vain,
dead, carnal works which don't do anything for us before God.
God isn't impressed with our work. He's impressed alone with
the work that Christ Jesus, his son, did. And so he fixes our
hearts and our attention and our love and our faith and our
hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he provides ministers to
keep preaching that, to keep declaring, holding forth that
word of life that you might hear and know the truth, and not just
be blown away and carried away with just some false, dead, phony
doctrine. it is of no value or any good
to us. But speaking the truth in love,
may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ,
from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted
by that which every joint supplies according to the effectual working,
in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto
the edifying of itself in love." And that's what we see here.
He's gathered you together. He provides ministers, people
that care, that really care and want to see this work established
and go forward and feed you and feed your children and feed your
loved ones and friends and family and provide that gospel of his
salvation for you because through that work, He's increasing you,
he's settling you in Christ, he's strengthening you, he's
developing the gifts which he's given to you that he uses further
in the church. And you see that increase of
the church growing, because nothing can stop the increase of Christ.
We can't stop his gospel from going forth and conquering the
hearts of all his people. He's going to be successful. He is the successful Savior.
He cannot fail. He cannot and shall not fail.
And then Paul goes on to speak of all those unifying gifts. He even wraps up Ephesians 4
saying, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven
you. See that unity and that peace there, that we're bearing
with one another, and the love of Christ that he's formed in
our hearts. All right, so look at verse 17,
in Philippians 2.17 now. Paul speaking of himself, he
says, Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service
of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. That Christ loves
you that much that he's providing this gospel to you, brethren.
And Paul saying, If I'm nothing more than just a vessel to be
filled up with the Spirit and poured out like a drink offering
upon you. and fill with the Spirit and pour like a drink offering
upon me. And then when he's done, I die in chains and I'm put to
death for loving Christ, that's fine with me. I'm content with
that to be used by the Lord for your good and for your benefit
that you might know the truth and hear what Christ has done
for you. As your gracious God said, I've
loved you. Therefore will I give men for
thee and people for thy life. And then on top of it, Paul says
there in verse 19, but I trust. You see his heart, the pastor's
heart. He wants their good. He's looking out for them and
he wants to ensure that they know all that they need to know. And he says, but I trust in the
Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you. There's not a more
trustworthy man that Paul could have sent than to send Timothy.
Timothy knew Paul. He knew what Paul preached. He
knew and loved the Lord Jesus Christ whom Paul preached. And
he knew the gospel. He knew the truth. And Paul said,
I'm sending you Timothy. Though I can't get there, I want
to send Timothy to you. Because I know Timothy knows
the gospel and he's going to preach the gospel to you. And
I'm sure that there was elders and preachers and pastors there
in Philippi. But they didn't have the whole
scripture. They had some letters, maybe
they had a couple books. And he's just saying, look, there
may be some things that you don't know or understand. And even
though you know them, I want you to hear them and be confirmed
and assured of what we're saying, that this is the truth. Christ
is life. And if there's anything lacking,
Timothy will know it. And if there's some wicked man
there that's causing division and speaking that which isn't
true, Though you didn't recognize it, Timothy is going to recognize
it and he'll stand up and he'll correct it. And he'll point out
the truth so that you're not deceived and carried away with
lies and your faith shipwrecked. Because Christ loves you and
he's going to provide for you. And he said in verse 20 and 21,
I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your
state, for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus
Christ. Think about what a gift that
is to the church for someone to be sent who isn't seeking
their own, but seeks the things that are Jesus Christ's. How
few are seeking the things that are Jesus Christ. You know, there's
a lot of people out there on Sermon Audio and just out there
in various churches that are very gifted speakers, but they're
seeking their own. They'll even say things just
to cause a division and to swoop out a certain portion of the
church and bring them to their side and bring them to themselves
so they have a following. And they don't care about the
fact that they're destroying the comfort and the peace that
was there in the church. And there's a time to declare
the truth. If there's error, grave error,
that is going to condemn people to hell, like trusting in their
own will, And their own faith? Yeah, that's to be corrected.
We're to declare Christ a successful Savior, because that's what He
is. But just to go and say things just because you want to get
a following? How is that any different than
what Satan did when he, with his tail, took out a third of
the stars, a third of the angels in heaven when he rebelled against
God and deceived them and took them with him? How is that any
different? We're not here just to get a following. We're here
seeking Christ. We're seeking what Christ has
shed his blood for, whom he's died for. Our ministry is to
deliver people out of death, to deliver them out of confusion,
to deliver them out of the darkness and the corruption and the chains
and the blackness of hell. It's to see the Lord's people
brought out of that, not to make more confusion and more trouble
and free people out of things that they don't even understand
what they're talking about. But the thing is that the Son
of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost. And so he's
going to send pastors and ministers that are also seeking the same
thing. They're seeking for Christ's lost sheep. And to do that, they're
preaching Christ, and they're exalting Him, and praising and
glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. So if a man seeks his own, that
means he's not seeking Christ's. He's seeking his own. He's not
seeking what's Christ's. The Lord is going to send people.
As he said, I have loved thee, therefore will I give men for
thee, and people for thy life. The Lord is going to do that.
That's the love he has for his people. And then lastly, he gives
us another example of Epaphroditus. Look at verse 25. Yet I supposed
it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in
labor and fellow soldier, but your messenger and he that ministered
to my wants." Look at verse 29 and 30. Receive him therefore
in the Lord with all gladness and hold such a reputation because
for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death not regarding
his life to supply your lack of service toward me. Now I can't
say for sure, but it sounds like as Epaphroditus is going to Paul,
that's when he became ill. On his way to reach Paul, And
he determined, I don't want this gift to go nowhere. I don't want
it just to fall into the hands of some other person. I want
this to get to Paul. I want it to reach Paul, because
that's why we put it together. And so he pushed himself, even
though he was ill, and even though it risked his life, and he could
have died doing it, but he pushed himself to reach Paul. And that's
why Paul is saying what he says. And like Epaphroditus, Christ
sends ministers bearing the gift, bearing the gift of the Lord
Jesus Christ, bearing His name and proclaiming His gospel, though
it might mean the very death of ourselves. And it does, actually.
There's a lot of men and women that are dying in this flesh
just to bring you the gospel, just to lay down their opportunities
and what they could do in this life just so you, brethren, would
hear the glorious good news of the Lord Jesus Christ and what
He has accomplished for you. And we're not upset about it.
We're not complaining because that's what the Lord does. That's
the love that He's showing to you as He said, I have loved
thee, therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life. Do you understand the love that
Christ has for you that he would give people for your life to
ensure that you hear this gospel consistently and know and believe
and are assured that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ sent of
God and he has successfully done this work? So in this chapter
we saw Christ gave himself for you. We saw Christ gave his Holy
Spirit to you that you might know these things. And Christ
sends men and women to seek the things which are Christ's. To
seek those things which are Christ's. So of a truth he gave men for
thee and people for thy life. That's the sweetness and tenderness
of the Lord. So be thankful And you too, understand,
seek those things which are Christ's. Be blameless and harmless. Don't
look to divide. We know what the evil one does. We know we're not ignorant of
his ways. We know how he subtly works in division and strife
among people. So pray for the peace of your
brethren and look out for it. Keep looking to Christ and trust
him. and rejoice in this work because he loves you. He gave
men for thee and people for thy life. I pray the Lord will bless
this word to the hearts of his people. Let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you for the love that you have for your people,
Lord. We're nothing. We've got nothing
to boast in, Lord. For you are all glorious and
righteous and holy, and we thank you for your work, because we
know, Lord, you did the work of salvation, and you sent your
Spirit, you did the work to wash us of our sins, and you send
your Spirit to give us life and to make us to know these things
which you've done for us. And you raise up ministers, men
and women, who give up their lives and labor for the good
and the benefit of your church and wanting to see this gospel
go forth, seeking those things which are Christ's. Lord, give
us that heart. Give us that heart that desires
to see your truth grow and increase in the heart of your people,
your body. We thank you, Lord, for your
salvation. It's in Christ's name that we
pray. Amen.